Senators: Cut 100,000 postal workers

A bipartisan group of Senators unveiled legislation Wednesday to save the U.S. Postal Service from what Sen. Joe Lieberman called a “financial death spiral” but keeps six-day-a-week delivery while slashing 100,000 employees.

Under the proposal by Sens. Lieberman (I-Conn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.), the postal service also would reduce the number of post offices and implement a number of other cost-saving options. The legislation would also prohibit the postal service from ending Saturday delivery for at least the next two years.

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A move to five-day service, Collins said, should be “truly the last resort, not the first option.”

“We are not crying wolf here,” Collins said at a press conference. “The postal service literally will not survive unless comprehensive, legislative and administrative reforms are undertaken. Absent to action, the postal service will not be able to meet its payroll a year from now.”

A key provision of the proposed legislation would require the Office of Personnel Management to repay nearly the $7 billion due to the postal service for overpayments it made to the federal employee retirement system. This refund would authorize the Postmaster General to initiate a buyout program that would cut about 100,000 workers or more over the next several years.

Carper said the Postmaster General anticipates using about $2 billion to provide retirement incentives — and if 100,000 employees accept a buyout, it would save the USPS $8 billion per year.

Other cost-cutting measures would include an option to negotiate with the postal union to alter its current healthcare system and benefits plan, a total overhaul of the workers’ compensation program and a plan to streamline delivery by implementing curbside service over door deliveries.

Collins said the postal service could likely save hundreds of millions of dollars in workers’ compensation payments alone.

The postal service, Lieberman said, is currently in a “financial death spiral.” These steps must be taken or the USPS will not survive, he told reporters. “The bottom line is we must act quickly to prevent a postal service collapse,” Lieberman said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has introduced a postal reform bill in the House that would create an oversight board, shutter thousands of post offices and cut Saturday service, along with other sweeping reforms. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has proposed a version of that bill in the Senate.